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SC Beekeeping Blues

I've been down here in SC working bees these past three weeks and we haven't had very good weather for foraging or mating. Next week doesn't look any better. Will hardly break 60 degrees all week according to The Weather Channel.

I spent the last two days feeding hives w/ HFCS 55, some twice in less than 24 hours. Yellow jasmine is in bloom and causing problems in those hives foraging on it.

Re: SC Beekeeping Blues

Mark while I don't share the pain to your extent as it's just a hobby to me with about 25 hives, it is a lousy weather here in SC. I'm feeding also. I'm thinking this cold spell has set everyone here back about 2 weeks if not longer. I'm sure it has really screwed up your schedule.

Re: SC Beekeeping Blues

shriveled wings. i vaguely remember reading that chilling could cause this, so i thought i would ask.

could be dmv as well, but this is my strongest hive coming out of winter. it has a deep and a half worth of bees. i suppose the brooding could have helped the mites, and this is one i moved back home from an outyard that had mite losses with robbing in one case.

plus, i was a little late in checkerboarding this one, and when i opened it for the first time, the broodnest was divided between the bottom deep and the medium above it (the medium was full of honey going into winter).

in the process of adding the second medium i opened up the broodnest in the first medium with empty comb and moved a couple of frames of brood up into the second medium, keeping the brood frames in all three boxes lined up vertically.

then it turned cold. i may have spread the brood a little bit too much, which is why i thought the dead emerging bees with shriveled wings could have been from the cold. i had not seen any of this before i opened the broodnest and the cold weather set in.

if any of mine deserve to swarm it is this one, but as of last week no swarm intent was seen, all signs indicating an expanding broodnest.

i'll be taking a mite count on this hive pretty soon just to see.

journaling the growth of a treatment free apiary started in 2010. 20+/- hives

Re: SC Beekeeping Blues

Its cold here too.

Yesterday I was watching my bees harvesting water from a flipped over garbage can lid that had collected rain. The water surface had frozen overnight, and then partially defrosted in the sun to have a mix of water and ice. Bees were flocking to this cold water!

A few days earlier I had placed a small block of wood in there so there was a float for them to land on, and most of them definitely preferred to use the water absorbed into the wood. However I saw a few standing on ice and collecting melt water from the surface. This was on a day where my recorded high temperature for the day was 46 degrees.

Re: SC Beekeeping Blues

> What's "dmv"?

That's when your bees hide out in the back of the hive and try to look busy, even though they are not really doing anything except surfing the web. Its not a fatal condition, but everything moves so slowly that as dusk grows closer you expect to be told to come back tomorrow just to get your "honey".

Re: SC Beekeeping Blues

Originally Posted by beemandan

Sometimes ya gotta dig deep to find that silver lining.

Actually from a nuc making standpoint it's the best of times. Of course, the big picture isn't quite as rosy as we may not see 60 degrees in the next few days and we have virgins about ready to fly. I just keep reminding myself of one of my rules in this business and that is not to spend a lot of time worrying about things over which I have no control.

"People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe."- Andy Rooney